With all that in mind I wondered: on average for how many teams does typical NBA player work for?
Especially when it’s a natural follow-up to information about average career length.
I used the same data to determine answer but with two important tweaks: I deleted all player-seasons from defunct franchises and I assumed team’s continuity [so for example, I considered Minneapolis Lakers the same team as Los Angeles Lakers]. I did it to focus on players’ movement alone not on team’s history.

And the result of those calculations was…3458 NBA players on average spent 2.21 seasons with one team and they played for 2.51 teams.

As with average career length there’s probably a difference between starters, stars and scrubs so…

For how many teams on average NBA Players played for in various rotation roles?

Less than 12 minutes per game for a career = 1,69 teams.
More than 12 minutes per game for a career but less than 20 = 2,98 teams.
More than 20 minutes per game for a career but less than 25 = 3,30 teams.
More than 25 minutes per game for a career but less than 30 = 3,38 teams.
More than 30 minutes per game for a career = 2,99 teams.

I think there’s an interesting dynamic here… even though the last group has the longest average careers… they spend it with fewer teams! Like we really needed another reason why does it pay off to be considered among the best players in the league… ;-)

As a bonus… recently Sports Illustrated posted a gallery titled “Twenty-Plus Years with One Team” which had 21 names on it… but none of them from the NBA!
So Which NBA Players did spend the most time with one Team? Here’s a full list for 13+ seasons…

Player

Team

Started

Finished

Games

Minutes

Seasons

John Stockton*

UTA

1985

2003

1504

47764

19

Karl Malone*

UTA

1986

2003

1434

53479

18

Reggie Miller

IND

1988

2005

1389

47619

18

Hakeem Olajuwon*

HOU

1985

2001

1177

42844

17

John Havlicek*

BOS

1963

1978

1270

46471

16

Dolph Schayes*

PHI

1950

1964

996

29800

15

Hal Greer*

PHI

1959

1973

1122

39788

15

Kobe Bryant

LAL

1997

2011*

1103

40145

15

Patrick Ewing*

NYK

1986

2000

1039

37586

15

David Robinson*

SAS

1990

2003

987

34271

14

Elgin Baylor*

LAL

1959

1972

846

33863

14

Jerry West*

LAL

1961

1974

932

36571

14

Joe Dumars*

DET

1986

1999

1018

35139

14

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar*

LAL

1976

1989

1093

37492

14

Robert Parish*

BOS

1981

1994

1106

34977

14

Tim Duncan

SAS

1998

2011*

1053

37733

14

Alvan Adams

PHO

1976

1988

988

27203

13

Bill Laimbeer

DET

1982

1994

937

30602

13

Bill Russell*

BOS

1957

1969

963

40726

13

Bob Cousy*

BOS

1951

1963

917

30131

13

Calvin Murphy*

HOU

1971

1983

1002

30607

13

Chris Mullin*

GSW

1986

2001

807

28225

13

Dirk Nowitzki

DAL

1999

2011*

993

36236

13

Fred Brown

OKC

1972

1984

963

24422

13

Isiah Thomas*

DET

1982

1994

979

35516

13

Kevin McHale*

BOS

1981

1993

971

30118

13

Larry Bird*

BOS

1980

1992

897

34443

13

Magic Johnson*

LAL

1980

1996

906

33245

13

Michael Jordan*

CHI

1985

1998

930

35887

13

Paul Pierce

BOS

1999

2011*

964

35710

13

Tom Sanders*

BOS

1961

1973

916

22164

13

Wes Unseld*

WAS

1969

1981

984

35832

13

Gary Payton

OKC

1991

2003

999

36858

13

A lot of Hall-of-Fame players here… including those who will join this group in the future and 4 of them are still playing in aforementioned teams so they will move up on this list.

Finally, a curiosity: which NBA players played on most teams during their career?